Relationship between adolescents’ and their parents’ attitudes toward medicines and awareness of the risk of medicines

Abstract

Background When they reach adolescence, children begin to independently use medicine without their parents' supervision, but parents usually still want to be involved in their drug therapy. Objective The aim of this study was to investigate how parental attitudes and awareness toward medicine relate to adolescents' attitudes and awareness. Setting Twelve secondary schools in different regions of the Slovak Republic. Method Adolescents and parents responded to a questionnaire, and the answers were paired and analysed. Parental and adolescents' attitudes toward medicines and awareness of the risk of medicines were measured using a five-point Likert scale. Main outcome measure The strength of the relationship between parents' and their adolescent children's level of agreement with statements about medicines. Results There were significant differences between parents᾽ and adolescents' mean Likert scores for statements about their attitudes toward medicines and their awareness of the risk of medicines (p < 0.05). Parents and adolescents were not fully aware of the risks of cough medicine (73.5% and 76.1%), antihistamines (32.7% and 52.1%), painkillers (33.6% and 47%) and combining medicines (25.2% and 40.4%). More than half of the parents and adolescents had a positive perception of the effectiveness of medication and believed that taking medicine would not hurt adolescents. Parents' and adolescents' responses to the statements were directly proportional (r = 0.94, p < 0.001). Conclusion The analysis revealed a relationship between Slovakian adolescents' and their parents' attitudes and awareness toward medicine; it highlighted areas of adolescents' and parents' education about the proper use of medications.

Impacto de intervenciones educativas en el uso racional del medicamento por farmacéuticos comunitarios en estudiantes de bachiller

“…La tabla 2 muestra que cerca del 54 % de los participantes eran de sexo femenino. La edad media fue próxima a los 16,5 años (15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20). El 85 % había utilizado medicamentos en los tres meses anteriores, un 16 % había utilizado antibióticos, un 20 % ibuprofeno 400 mg, un 41 % ibuprofeno 600 mg y un 38 % paracetamol, entre otros.…”

“…Existen estudios que han perseguido objetivos muy similares a los nuestros, pero o bien la población a estudio era diferente en términos sociodemográficos (13), o bien los cuestionarios utilizados diferían en su diseño y escala como ocurre con el estudio de Puig Soler et al (10). En otros casos las variables a estudio diferían de las nuestras, aunque la población a estudio sí que podría haber sido comparable (14)(15). Por otra parte, otros cuestionarios existentes en nuestro país como el de García Delgado (16), o a nivel internacional (17), abordan el conocimiento específico de la propia medicación de cada paciente, y no evalúan los conocimientos de conceptos, creencias y actitudes generales sobre el proceso de uso de medicamentos en general.…”